Since the invention of the integrated circuit, the semiconductor industry has experienced continued rapid growth due to continuous improvements in the integration density of various electronic components (i.e., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.). For the most part, this improvement in integration density has come from repeated reductions in minimum feature size, which allows more components to be integrated into a given area.
These integration improvements are essentially two-dimensional (2D) in nature, in that the volume occupied by the integrated components is essentially on the surface of the semiconductor wafer. Although dramatic improvement in lithography has resulted in considerable improvement in 2D integrated circuit formation, there are physical limits to the density that can be achieved in two dimensions. One of these limits is the minimum size needed to make these components. Also, when more devices are put into one chip, more complex designs are required.
An additional limit comes from the significant increase in the number and length of interconnections between devices as the number of devices increases. When the number and length of interconnections increase, both circuit RC delay and power consumption increase.
In an attempt to further increase circuit density, three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs) have been investigated. In a typical formation process of a 3D IC, two dies are bonded together and electrical connections are formed between each die and contact pads on a substrate. For example, one attempt involved bonding two dies on top of each other. The stacked dies were then bonded to a carrier substrate and wire bonds electrically coupled contact pads on each die to contact pads on the carrier substrate.
Advances have also been made in wafer-level packaging. Generally, wafer-level packaging involves performing back-end-of-line processing at the wafer level as opposed to performing this processing after the wafer has been diced. In particular, wafer-level packaging may include forming contact structures, encapsulating or back-side protection, grinding, and the like at the wafer level. It has been found that performing these functions at the wafer level may decrease costs. Wafer-level packaging may also result in thinner packages.
After packaging, the wafer is separated into individual dice. Typically, however, wafer-level package techniques place a molding or encapsulant compound on its upper surface, leaving the edges of the wafer exposed. As a result, the wafer may be susceptible to damage and/or wafer warping.